Musical insight from the artists in Vienna, Austria

Hello!

I'm sending you the first pictures of our music-project.

On the left side of the sheets you can see the impressions inspired by Edvard Grieg, Morning Mood. On the right side you can see what children did to the music from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Summer, Presto (The Thunderstorm). Some of them really fell into the music. :)

It was interesting to notice that nearly all children had the same feelings. Morning mood is smooth and clear. A lot of them started to paint with the colour green; they painted nature and "good" things like music, birds - happiness and peace.

Vivaldi's Thunderstorm is very rude and disturbing. They had the feeling of death and threat in different forms like a house is burning or someone is crying for help. Also, bad people are in the pictures.

THANKS A LOT for your candies! We had a lot of fun opening your present and tasting the candies! In Austria we don't eat liquorice, just a few people like it (like me). But the caramel candy and the chocolat were great! They loved it!*

Its always a great moment for the children to get a parcel from far away. We loved the stamps from Finland and the children did not allow me to destroy the paper around the parcel. ;)

Winter and Christmas is coming in Vienna...

Best wishes!!

Simone

*The artists in Vienna, Austria are exchanging with the artists in Vantaa, Finland.

Let the beat guide you

Lusine, the teacher at Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin said, "the kids had a lot of fun, many painted with music, letting the beat be the guiding light." I'm sure their friends in Lasteaed Illikuku in Põlvamaa, Estonia are super excited to receive their musical paintings!

The Musical Dears from Vantaa!

Hello Dears!

We have had so much fun and a nice time with our Dear You Art project and music paintings/drawings this week! Our kids listened in their own "small groups" different kind of music from Finnish classical to folk (specially our own national instrument Kantele) and world music (pop) between. And surely they were enjoying a lot also listening in peace while making "pictures".

Finally, they finished their work to an end.  We discussed different kinds of feelings we had. Children mostly told about feeling happiness, joy, pleasure, good and positive emotions and their being safe! Some had exciting feels and also little bit scary too or at least mystic:... "like some big ship by the sea without knowing what is coming next..."  All of them said they could do this again, it was so fun!

Hopefully you have received our big candy present for your kids in Vienna?

Best greetings,
Snowleopards and Anne-Marie

The pictures say it all!

For the November Musical Painting Michelle Mullally,  Assistant Director at Moonstone Preschool said, "They got so into it.  I love seeing how students respond to music while making art."

The pictures speak for themselves :)

Being in the moment with sounds in Prague

This time at Central Point International Elementary School in Prague we made a visualization of the music project. 

I prepared for the students a long sheet of paper and than while we altogether were listening to music, we tried to express what we heard. The aim was not to create separate individual results of our observations, but we wanted to get closer to the idea of listening together and also creating together. That is why we used this kind of paper. All the students at some point disturbed each other's drawing and had to deal with each other's drawing space, which brought new element into our working method. Hopefully our friend school in Helsinki will recognize the energy locked into the piece.

We listened to:
Flight of the Bumblebee
Amelia from Montmartre
Japanese relaxation music
433 John Cage

- Rudolf Samohejl 

The Musical Tigers get inspired by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky

Art is another form of self expression and today the Tigers taught me a lot about that!  We started the session by looking at artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.  These two great artists were very much inspired by music. We talked about the kinds of sounds and music we started to hear when we looked at their paintings. 

Composition 8 (Komposition 8)

Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944). Composition 8 (Komposition 8), July 1923. Oil on canvas, 55 1/8 x 79 1/8 inches (140 x 201 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Castle and Sun

Paul Klee, Castle and Sun

Ancient Sound

Paul Klee, Ancient Sound

Then we listened to some music and hopped along to it to see visually and physically how the rhythm is.  We jumped when the tune was high and crept closer to the floor when it was low.  After we felt comfortable with the music we shimmied to our drawing tables and started painting away to Schneider TM's song called "Frogtoise" and to Nightmares On Wax song, "Les Nuits".  Can you hear the difference through the brushstrokes?

We can't wait to hear what songs our friends in Vietnam created to!

The Monkeys Move to the Beat!

Our bodies react to music sometimes in ways we can't control or foresee. We just have to experience it to believe it! Today we tried to become more aware of why and how that happens.  First, we started off by having a dance party to just let our bodies lose and move to the beat.  Then we dived into our paints and let our dancing hands guide the brush.  The stories created and felt were amazing!  

First we listed to Dean Martin's "Let it Snow". The Monkeys will be performing this song for the Christmas play so it was fun to practice it with them.

When The Monkeys listened to Helado Negro's song titled "Invisible Heartbeat" images of ocean with whales and mermaids came swimming into the artists' minds. We got into groups to create collective paintings. Bringing all of our imaginary worlds together and making them come to life is always exciting!

How do you move, what do you see, how do you feel when you hear certain songs?  What music do you hear when you look at the Monkeys' paintings?  We are excited to see what our friends in Greenland come up with!